Share this article

Letter: It is not so very unusual to see billionaire handouts

The $3 billion of incentives used to entice Amazon to New York City was out of the ordinary only due to the size of the “pot of gold” being offered to a trillion-dollar company.

Amazon’s second location was coveted by scores of communities across the nation and no doubt believed it could ask and receive any incentive it sought. How shocked Amazon must have felt when New York City had the audacity to make its own demands. In the end Amazon decided to go elsewhere.

While this story played out on a national stage it is played out in every NFL city when the owner demands upgrades to a taxpayer-funded stadium or insists on a new stadium because the owner’s buddies aren’t receiving enough revenue when their team plays in town.

It’s also played out in cities without a franchise when they fall over themselves to offer huge subsidies to billionaires for the right to host 10 games a year.

Capitalist billionaires looking for a handout - who would have thought it?